Submariner Gets Support to Make Admiral
Submarine veterans have begun a nationwide campaign to persuade Congress to confer the rank of rear admiral on retired Navy Captain Slade Cutter. The group believes that a “grave injustice” has occurred in overlooking the 92-year- old legend’s contributions to the service.
The northern Virginia chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans initiated the effort. It recently passed, by unanimous vote, a resolution calling on the Senate to approve special legislation or some other measure to elevate Cutter to flag rank. The chapter, one of more than 100 across the nation, has forwarded the resolution to Senators John McCain (R- AZ) and John Warner (R-VA), ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Other chapters are weighing in, as are residents of the captain’s boyhood hometown of Oswego, Illinois.
A new book published by the Naval Institute Press in October 2003 spurred the veterans to action, according to Ross Sargent, a Washington lawyer for the Farm Credit Administration and a former submarine yeoman who is leading the drive.
In a cover letter sent to Congress with the resolution, Sargent summarized the group’s position: “In the recently released biography, Slade Cutter: Submarine Warrior by Carl LaVO, the many exploits and accomplishments of Capt. Cutter are graphically and vividly captured. What is also apparent, is the grave injustice that was done to this very fine gentlemen. . . . [One] adverse fitness report, prepared by a bitter and disgraced superior, during World War II, laid the ground work for blocking Slade Cutter’s promotion to Rear Admiral.”
Cutter retired from the Navy in 1963 and today lives in Annapolis, Maryland, with his wife, Ruth. He always has been humble about his achievements. He also is reluctant to endorse any movement to advance him in rank.
As one of the nation’s most decorated naval officers, Cutter earned four Navy Crosses during World War II as the commanding officer of the submarine Seahorse (SS-304). He was credited with sinking 23 Japanese ships in four combat patrols. He also earned two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, a Presidential Unit Citation, and nine Battle Stars for the Seahorse.
As a midshipman, Cutter was an All- American tackle and place kicker at the U.S. Naval Academy, as well as an undefeated intercollegiate heavyweight boxer. His field goal in the 1934 Army-Navy game in Philadelphia represented the only score in a titanic struggle between the two national powerhouses. The 3-0 victory broke a 13-year losing streak to Army.
Cutter’s postwar billets included Commander, Submarine Division 32; commanding officer of Submarine Squadron Six; commanding officer of the tanker Neosho (AO-143); commanding officer of the command ship Northampton (CLC-1); chief of staff to Commander, Striking Fleet, Atlantic; and Commander, Great Lakes Naval Training Center.
The submarine veterans association believes Cutter was denied admiralty because of an adverse fitness report filed against him by Lieutenant Commander Donald McGregor during the war. McGregor and his executive officer, Cutter, clashed bitterly over the skipper’s unwillingness to attack numerous targets during the Seahorse’s first war patrol north of New Guinea in 1943. On the boat’s return to Midway, Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood abruptly stripped McGregor of command for his lack of aggressiveness and replaced him with Cutter. McGregor retaliated by filing a negative fitness report against Cutter, concluding that his exec was better suited for assignment to the athletic department at the Naval Academy. Cutter was unaware of this report until years later.
Cutter asked the Navy for a formal review in hopes Lockwood would set the record straight. The admiral did so by comparing the records of both men. Whereas Cutter sank more than 20 enemy vessels, McGregor had received credit for a single sinking on five war patrols. “I think the record speaks for itself,” Lockwood concluded.
This nonetheless disappointed Cutter, as Lockwood did not address McGregor’s assessment of him directly. “You see, those fitness reports stay in your record,” Cutter told author Carl LaVO. “You never look good when you take any action against what a senior has done.”
Ironically, McGregor retired after the war as rear admiral. Cutter moved up to captain but advanced no further. His former shipmates see this as an injustice. At the final reunion of Cutter’s Seahorse crew on Tilghman Island, Maryland, in 1999, former lookout Jim O’Meara of Grants Pass, Oregon, put it succinctly in a letter to his skipper. “Capt. Cutter,” O’Meara wrote, “you are a kind, humble, unheralded, brave man. This country today is badly in need of heroes. You sir, have been sadly overlooked.”
Lanikai Artifacts Head to Museum
“It’s the Lanikail’' shouted scuba diver Robbie Homan as he broached the surface of Subic Bay, Philippines. With these three simple words, a 58-year-old mystery was resolved.
In early 2004, after a local diver reported seeing the remains of a wooden vessel at the mouth of Triboa Bay, a small inlet on Subic Bay, divers were sent to investigate. What they discovered was the final resting place of the schooner USS Lanikai, a ship that was a part of one of the greatest sea adventures of World War II. She was given a secret mission— along with her crew of 12 Filipino fishermen and six U.S. Navy chiefs and petty officers, with Lieutenant Kemp Tolley as skipper—in the week before the attack on Pearl Harbor to “observe” Japanese forces.
The Lanikai's real mission, according to Tolley, was to provoke the Japanese to sink her and provide a reason for the United States to enter the war, a thesis that has been debated over the years.
After the war, the Lanikai came back to the Philippines to be repaired at the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay for return to her original owners. She succumbed, however, to a typhoon that struck in February 1947. In the flurry of postwar activity, the schooner was forgotten.
In 1992, the U.S. Navy base at Subic Bay was turned over to the Philippine government and placed under the jurisdiction of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA).
The SBMA regulates diving on the more than 25 known wrecks in the bay, ranging from a Spanish gunboat, the cruiser USS New York (ACR-2), and numerous U.S. and Japanese landing craft, transports, and aircraft.
When the SBMA received the report of a wooden wreck near Mooring #\ 1 at the mouth of Triboa Bay, it asked Robbie Homan’s Subic Bay-based dive company, Masterdive, Inc., to investigate.
First, Homan conducted a side-scan sonar survey of the area. Some gun turrets, a landing craft, and a Japanese service boat were known to be in the same area, but there was one sonar return that did not correlate to any of these previously explored objects.
Homan, who has studied the history of all the wrecks in Subic Bay, knew at once this was something unusual, but he never considered the object could be the Lanikai. Official U.S. Navy records indicate the ship sank near the mouth of the Boton River, more than two miles from the site.
Homan described what he saw when he dived on the wreck: “Lanikai is sitting upright in 125 feet of water, the bow slightly up. All the wood is badly deteriorated, of course, but about two feet of the hull, with planking, is still visible. The big timbers of the ribs are still intact, and the keel protrudes from the badly damaged bow of the wreck. A large Danforth anchor and a pile of chain near the bow may have come off a ship moored here and destroyed the bow area. The engine, pumps, generators, and the aft gun mount are clearly visible, and there are many artifacts . . . around the wreck.”
In addition to the silt that has settled over the wreck during the past 58 years, several inches of sandy volcanic ash from the 1991 eruption of nearby Mount Pinatubo covers the Lanikai. Homan’s crew, however, still was able to recover about 20 artifacts, including brass portholes, hatches, lamps, fire extinguishers, and a Coca-Cola bottle. Probably the most exciting find for the divers was the Lanikai’s wheel.
“It’s a real thrill to see these things in Tolley’s photographs and then actually hold them in your hands,” said Matt McGeechan, one of the divers.
Masterdive and SBMA divers made a dozen dives over the next eight days and photographed and documented the location of artifacts before bringing them to the surface.
“We didn’t do any real excavation, just removed those items that were resting on the bottom or just partially buried,” Homan said. “No doubt there are many more artifacts buried in the muddy bottom that will have to wait if a proper expedition is ever mounted. All artifacts we recover will be on public display at the new SBMA Historical Center."
Back at Masterdive’s bayside shop, Jaime Velarmino eagerly awaited each return of the dive boat as the Lanikai surrendered her artifacts and they were brought back for inventory. His father, Hilario Velarmino (“Cooky” to the crew), was one of the Filipino fishermen on the Lanikai when the Navy chartered her. He was sworn in as cook first class and, according to Tolley, could produce a feast using just his little oil drum stove on the deck of the schooner. Velarmino’s uncle, Baldomero Velarmino, also was a Lanikai crewmember.
“I was very excited when I heard the news that the Lanikai was found. My father and uncle loved the ship and told us many tales of their cruise to Australia. Lanikai came to mean a lot to all of us children. My father and uncle kept in touch with Admiral Tolley through the years. My son is named Kemp in honor of the admiral,” said Velarmino, a retired local police chief.
With the recovery operation complete, the SBMA opened the site for the many other divers in the area to explore.
Gerald R. Anderson
Naval Institute Press Books Win Awards
The North American Society for Oceanic History, a forum devoted to the study and promotion of naval and maritime history, recently announced the winners of its 2003 John Lyman Book Awards in five categories. Naval Institute Press books received three of the awards: West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay, by Jack Friend, in the category of U.S. History; The Coast Guard in World War I: An Untold Story, by Alex Larzelere, in the category of U.S. Maritime History; and Voyage to a Thousand Cares: Master’s Mate Lawrence with the African Squadron, edited by C. Herbert Gilliland, in the category of Primary Source Materials. Another Naval Institute Press book, The Messman Chronicles: African-Americans in the U.S. Navy, 1932-1943, by Richard E. Miller, received honorable mention.
Other winners were All the Factors of Victory: Admiral Joseph Mason Reeves and the Origins of Carrier Airpower, by Thomas Wildenberg (published by Brassey’s), in the category of Biography and Autobiography; and Frigates and Foremasts: The North American Squadron in Nova Scotia Waters, 1745-1815, by Julian Gwyn (published by UBC Press), in the category of Canadian Naval and Military History.
Oriskany Goes ‘Down’ in History
The aircraft carrier Oriskany (CVA-34) is about to go down in history. On 1 May 1944, the U.S. Navy laid the keel of the Oriskany in the midst of World War II. She was launched on 15 October 1945, but her completion was delayed until 1950. She went on to provide valiant service during the Korean War, and she also served throughout the Vietnam War, when her aircraft flew numerous sorties during the conflict.
A brief tragedy befell the carrier in October 1966, when a magnesium parachute flare explosion caused a fire on board that killed 44 sailors and injured several others. The Oriskany returned to the United States for repairs and made her way back to the western Pacific to be named the flagship of Carrier Division Nine in 1967. Before that, the ship and her crew contributed to a fire rescue for the Forrestal (CVA-59).
After serving so vigilantly, the Oriskany’s service came to a close in 1975, when she was decommissioned. She was later stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1989 and sold for scrap in September 1995. This restless vessel, however, reared her head once more. The scrap metal contractor defaulted, and the Oriskany was repossessed by the Navy. The contract was terminated in July 1997.
For approximately a year coastal locations throughout the United States have contended for the Oriskany as the first carrier of her size to be sunk as an artificial reef. The Essex (CV-9)-class carrier was considered a prize by shoreline counties because of the potential of drawing tourists, the future reef’s appealing economic factors, and the flavorful history the Oriskany could add to a region—even as an underwater attraction. In spring 2004, the Maritime Administration and Naval Sea Systems Command made their final decision: the Gulf of Mexico would get the old carrier. Specifically, she would go to Escambia County, Florida, home to Pensacola, the “Cradle of Naval Aviation.”
The initial step in preparation for this unprecedented move in naval history is one of environmental concern. The carrier must be completely gutted of all hazardous materials prior to her sinking. The Navy has set aside $2.8 million for this process. But the Navy will not pick up the tab to lay the Oriskany in her final resting place. Escambia County and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will pay for the sinking expenses. Every step along the way will set a precedent for the next carrier to come through the ranks of the reefing program.
The Gulf of Mexico is somewhat of a haven for scuba divers. The Panhandle has sugar-white beaches that attract tourists all summer long, and the carrier will be an added historical attraction sure to bring more. The Oriskany will be sunk approximately 22 miles southeast of the Pensacola Pass in 212 feet of water, according to Robert Turpin, chief of marine resources for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The exact spot has yet to be determined.
It is likely more carriers will follow the Oriskany as artificial reefs. The program will benefit marine life habitats and recreational fishing and diving, as well as increase pride among locals about the rich naval and maritime heritage of their city.
Pending issuance of all permits, the Oriskany will go “down” in history, to rest at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, sometime in August 2004.
S. Lori Lutz
Norfolk to Host Maritime Heritage Conference
The leading maritime heritage organizations in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, region will host the next Maritime Heritage Conference in October 2004 in the historic southern seaport of Norfolk. These institutions include the Hampton Roads Naval Museum with the battleship Wisconsin (BB-64), the Mariners’ Museum, Nauticus-The National Maritime Center, the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, the Old Coast Guard Station Museum, the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum, and the Virginia Maritime Heritage Foundation. Conference headquarters will be the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel overlooking the harbor and adjacent to Town Point Park, just a short walk from two other conference venues, Nauticus and the Wisconsin.
Presentations will be made on a wide variety of topics related to maritime and naval history. They will include subjects such as life-saving stations, lighthouses, marine art, maritime and naval museums, maritime education, mercantile port operations, ocean exploration, sailors’ life ashore, shipbuilding, ship preservation, small craft, tall ships, and underwater archaeology. The 5th International Ship Preservation Conference will be included within the meeting program. Program chair Joseph C. Mosier may be reached at: Maritime Heritage Conference, Chrysler Museum of Art and Historic Houses, 245 West Olney Road, Norfolk, VA 23510-1587, telephone: (757) 664-6205, e-mail: [email protected].
The conference will open with a reception on 27 October at Nauticus and on board the Wisconsin. Program sessions will continue from 28-30 October. The conference banquet speaker on 30 October will be Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the best-sellers In the Heart of the Sea (New York: Viking, 2000) and Sea of Glory: America’s Voyage of Discovery: The U.S. Exploring Expedition 1838-1842 (New York: Viking, 2003).
On 29 October/ attendees will board the ship Spirit of Norfolk for lunch and a narrated cruise of Hampton Roads. Naval historian Dr. Alan Flanders will describe the naval facilities, and Jeff Johnston of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary will narrate the battle of the ironclads Virginia and Monitor as the ship circles the location of the 1862 battle.
Conference information can be found on the Nauticus Web site at www.nauticus.org. Click on the conference logo at the bottom of the home page. The conference brochure will include the meeting agenda, program session descriptions, tour sign-up details, registration form, and other information.
George H. W. Bush’s Stearman Flies Again
The Stearman trainer that former President George Bush soloed on 15 December 1942 flew again on 15 May 2004 at the Flying Tigers War- bird Restoration Museum in Kissimmee, Florida. N2S-3 is registered with the National Museum of Naval Aviation as one of the planes President Bush flew during World War II. Owner Bob Meyland is responsible for the complete restoration of the N2S that he started in 1990.
The “Bush Stearman” came from the Wichita, Kansas, Boeing factory on 15 October 1942 and was flown to the Minneapolis Naval Air Station, where the young George Bush flew it on a cold Midwest winter day two months later. Bob Meyland found the Stearman years later after it had clipped a power line working as a crop duster in Texas in 1989. Bob was looking for a Stearman to restore, and it was not until 1990 that he discovered his Stearman’s prestigious history.
The first family has been invited to the Warbird Museum not only to see the plane back in its original condition, but also to fly. Meyland has extended an open invitation to the President to fly his trainer.
Kathryn Budde-Jones